Cut Down That Bradford Pear

The over use of a non-indigenous species of plant can
sometimes have catastrophic, unintended consequences to the ecosystem. The
latest example of this would be the introduction of the Bradford pear. Those
white flowering trees that you will see blooming everywhere in February and
March is the Callery "Bradford" pear. After the farm outside of my neighborhood was abandoned, I watched its pasture, that once fed dozens of cows turn into a 15 acre Callery Pear forest in a matter of 7 years.

This tree became so popular so fast due to its ability to
withstand all conditions, its fast growth rate, its tight shape and its
beautiful white flowers in the spring time. This tree had secrets that would
not be introduced until 14 to 20 years after it was planted. This tree would develop weak joints and start
splitting with the slightest breeze. This is where growers started looking for
better alternatives and the unintended consequences started.

The Bradford pear, like other pears, had to have a
pollinator to produce fruit. For so long this tree was not really producing
much fruit because there were not really many popular types of pears to
pollinate this tree. This changed as growers started to come up with “better”
cultivars that would not develop weak joints. Varieties like ‘Cleveland Select’,
‘Aristocrat’ and ‘Chanticleer’ were the solution.

These 4 varieties are all Callery pears and therefore, these
trees started cross pollinating with the millions of Bradford pears that were
over used. This produced inedible fruit that birds loved to eat. The birds would then start distributing the seeds everywhere.

The Callery pear rootstock was the tree of choice when it came
to grafting Bradford pears. The Callery pear itself is not so desirable as it
lacks the shape that comes with the Bradford and it has long, sharp thorns. When
Bradford pears were cut down they came back up, below the graft as this hideous
thorny pear. The seeds from the fruit are also that of the Callery pear.

This tree is now coming up everywhere. It is taking over
forests and killing off indigenous plants that other plants and animals count
on for shelter and food. Its ability to deal with shade or sun makes it
especially dangerous. If you see these trees coming up on your land, I would
recommend cutting it down and killing the stump because the problem gets exponentially
worse year after year.

Cut this tree down and apply Round Up concentrate (Glyphosate) to the stump
with a brush immediately after cutting it down.